This morning, the slight hope that things would return to normality today went out of the window. We turned up to find that 33(11) was still bothering Maya and 28(10) was still not here.

33 got even more daring this morning. He landed briefly on the nest, and he also tried to land on Maya’s back more than once, but she was having none of it! He caught a fish at about 11am, which he ate on the dead tree near Waderscrape Hide. We watched the screen with anticipation, would he bring the fish to Maya? As it turned out, he didn’t. If he wants to impress her, he’ll have to do better than that!

Later this afternoon, 33 landed on the nest again, for quite a long period. Maya had flown off, we thought to chase off 33, then he appeared on the nest! Where was she? A few seconds later she appeared with a clump of nesting material, and to begin with she seemed to tolerate 33’s presence!

Finally she chased him off and settled back down to incubate. 33 isn’t giving up though, he tried once again to land on Maya, and as I write he is still flying around the nest upsetting her. She has not been off the eggs that much today, so again, there may still be hope for them! However, if 33 does not give up, it is unlikely that 28 will come back, and if he doesn’t come back, then any hope we have for the eggs will slowly fade. The uncertainty is agonising, but all we can do is wait and see what happens next.

33 landed on the nest for a while this afternoon. He ignored the eggs though.